Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Back To Basics

Yesterday was intended to be an uneventful day. I was on my way to my home station to dock my Vexor and sit down with a cold one in my bunk. As I arrived in my home sector, I received a message from one of the members of my corporation. While his usual experiences did not include low security combat, he was interested in going out with me in search of some trouble. I had been planning on laying low due to the fragile state of my CONCORD security status, but I had promised this fellow at some point previously that we would hunt together and I have a serious problem saying no to such suggestions. So I docked at my station, put my Vexor away into my hangar, pulled out my tools and did some maintenance on one of my Incursus's. I made a purchase of Modal Light Ion Particle Accelerator blasters in an effort to give myself some serious firepower and equipped it with the usual microwarpdrive, scrambler and webbifier modules. When all was said and done, I had a ship with nice blasters, Federation Navy rated antimatter charges and a Hobgoblin II drone. While I still did not have the expertise or skills to fit any extra armor or defenses, this ship should have more firepower and speed than any Incursus I have flown to date.

I left the station and went to meet up with my gang mate. I tested my ship out on the way and found that I could hit nearly 3000 m/s with the MWD active and hold an orbit of 500 meters at almost full impulse speed. After having flown my Vexor for the past few weeks, having some speed and agility felt fantastic. My tank would be thin as paper and my capacitor wouldn't last long but I could move like the wind (the solar wind of course) and lay down some decent firepower for a short duration.

My wingman arrived with his Vexor, equipped similarly to how I fit my own and we headed out. On our second jump into low security space, we did some scanning and found a Hurricane battlecruiser camping a gate. At first I just ignored it but then began to consider what our odds would be if we could get him to engage us. Incursus, Vexor and gate guns versus a Hurricane? It could be possible. We warped to the gate, targeted and began to orbit the gate camper and at first got no response. After a minute he targeted us back and made some maneuvers to indicate that he was indeed at the controls and aware of us. A few more minutes passed and it became apparent that our target was not willing to take the risk of attacking us so we warped off and continued our search. As a side note, I ran into this same pilot later on in another system and we spoke briefly over the local channels. He let me know that he had his finger on the trigger and was very seriously contemplating engaging us... when I let me gang mate know this he was very upset that we had not stuck around longer to force the fight!

The next system we warped into is one of my favorites. We flew and scanned around for a bit but were not able to find much. Refusing to give up on my favorite spot, we kept going, scanning ships that were coming and going... Harpy, Ishkur, Rifter, Incursus... all sorts of smaller frigates we could engage if we could only catch them at a belt. Finally I scanned a Rifter at a belt and warped in to find him 100km off the center. Warping in at that distance is a move most pilots make when they are interested in scouting the area but not necessarily looking to commit themselves to a fight. I aligned to the pilot, turned on my microwarpdrive and rocketed towards him at full speed. He made no movement to indicate he was even at the controls... perhaps he was in the bathroom? Or perhaps he was watching and waiting for me to get into range so that he could pummel me with the guns and missiles that a Rifter tend to carry? After a few moments I got into range and immediately scrammed and webbed him and attempted to drop into a close orbit but I was moving way too fast and overshot him by several thousand meters. He had opened fire on me as soon as I was in range and I saw my shields drop quickly as missiles exploded against my ship. I was instantly worried about how quickly my tank would fail in this sort of setup and already my energy capacity was running low. As I turned to try and get back close to him he webbed me as well and suddenly I was right where he wanted. Out of the range I needed to use my guns but right in range for him to continue slamming me with missiles. I shook off the feeling of dread and toggled my microwarpdrive for just a moment to try and give me the speed to close distance... 5000 meters... 4000... 3000... finally I was in range to start laying down the hurt so I opened up with my blasters and watched them tear through his shields and armor in only a few volleys. He was almost through my armor but already it was too late. Right as I finally ran out of capacity and as he was just starting to damage my structure, the Rifter exploded and I breathed a sigh of relief. I glanced at my setup and thanked myself for spending the extra money on my guns and ammo and also kicked myself for forgetting to deploy my drone. The Hobgoblin II i was carrying could have been damaging the Rifter for me the entire time I was out of range with my guns.

A few minutes later after I had looted the wreck and was floating around far off the edge of the same belt, the pilot warped back in in his new rookie ship. I was not interested in engaging him now so I just continued floating along. He opened a channel with me and we discussed our encounter for a few minutes. It turns out he only graduated into the role of combat pilot about a month ago and was interested in the same sort of lifestyle as myself. I told him that he was welcome to contact me anytime and we could fly as allies in a gang rather than opponents in a belt.

3 comments:

Spectre, just curious can you fly something aside from Gallente? the mimmatar ships are VERY fast and can help in your Guerrilla style tactics? Just a thought...check the comment from Sunday's post as perhaps a 0.0 existence might make your life simpler as it will not reduce the sec status....

Right now I can only fly Gallente frigates, assault frigates, cruisers and battlecruisers. I want to focus on just Gallente for now so that i can be very effective in their ships and setups as quickly as possible. One day perhaps I will try out Amarr or Minmatar but I doubt it will be soon.

As far as the sec status problems go, I am still considering my options. I don't want to rush and jump into a situation/area I cannot yet handle, especially since my corp is mainly located in highsec. Keep in mind that I am still a newb :)